BLAZING COMBAT
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
WRITERS: Archie Goodwin, Michael Catron
ARTISTS: Various
LETTERS: Ben Oda, Various
COVER: John Severin
ISBN: 978-1-60699-366-8; paperback (February 2010)
212pp, B&W with some color, $19.99 U.S.
Comic book history tells us that Warren Publishing was an independent magazine publisher owned by maverick, James Warren. By 1965, Warren was best known for publishing Famous Monsters of Filmland, its flagship title, and Creepy, a horror comics anthology that would go on to become a legend. James Warren had even published Harvey Kurtzman’s black-and-white comic book series, Help!
Inspired by Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, two famous war titles from EC Comics, Warren launched his on war comic book, entitled Blazing Combat. The stories were largely written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by an absolute murderers’ row of comic book and illustration luminaries, including Wallace “Wally” Wood, Gene Colan, Frank Frazetta (cover artist), Joe Orlando, John Severin, Alex Toth, and Al Williamson, among others.
Blazing Combat looked like it would be a hit, but in 1965, the United States was escalating its involvement in Vietnam. Apparently, Blazing Combat’s realistic depiction of soldiers in combat, of the death, violence, and destruction of war, and even of the affects of war on civilians angered some. Blazing Combat was banned from sale on military bases, and the American Legion’s objections to the title led some magazine wholesalers to stop carrying it. In 1966, after only four issues, James Warren cancelled Blazing Combat.
The reader can learn all this in Michael Catron’s excellent introduction to a book entitled Blazing Combat. Published last year by Fantagraphics Books, the hardcover Blazing Combat collected all four issues of the original Blazing Combat and also included two interviews Catron conducted with James Warren and Archie Goodwin. Fantagraphics recently released a less expensive softcover edition of this 2010 Eisner Award nominated book (Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books).
So what you might ask? Who cares about a reprint of an old comic book published by James Warren over 40 years ago?
Well, Blazing Combat is probably the best war comic book ever published in the United States. Speaking in terms of anthology books, the art in Blazing Combat is every bit as good as the art found in EC Comics’ titles – the gold standard in anthology comics and arguably the best line of comic books ever published in the U.S.
As for the stories, Blazing Combat was probably the best writing of Archie Goodwin’s long and distinguished career as a writer and beloved editor. Screenwriters and directors have received Oscar nominations and wins for directing and writing some excellent war movies, such as The Hurt Locker recently. Goodwin’s work in Blazing Combat is every bit as powerful and high-quality.
In such stories as “Holding Action,” about a scared boy in Korea, “The Trench,” set in the trenches of World War I (both drawn by the incomparable John Severin), and “Face to Face” (drawn by Joe Orlando) set during the Spanish American war, Goodwin delivers poignant and powerful work about the damage of war on the mind and the spirit. The physical degradation of war on the land and on a people is revealed in the sublime “Landscape” (drawn by Joe Orlando), about a Vietnamese farmer.
For all the controversy his stories apparently generated, Goodwin gives love to the veteran combatant in the lovely “The Edge.” Drawn by Alex Toth, the story is more proof of why Toth is the master when it comes to drawing aerial combat in comic books. However, Wally Wood does show his own chops in two stories of aerial combat, “The Battle for Britain!” which he wrote and “ME-262!”
Blazing Combat, in spite of its short run, could be called special because of the list of luminaries that drew the comic book art – the visual storytelling. At a time, however, when comic book publishers were turning themselves solely into superhero comic book publishers, James Warren, Archie Goodwin, and their collaborators were tackling bigger ideas and substantive subject matter by taking on war and the military culture. And they did great work, to boot. Now, thanks to this collection, Blazing Combat leaves the memory hole and at long last takes its place of prominence in American comic book history.
A+
10 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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